Comments on: PBS on science fiction pulps vs. the web

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The only pulps that I have are a handful of F&SF issues that comprise four of the five issues that originally ran Stephen King’s “Gunslinger” stories. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like the format as I’d grown up thinking that the place to go for short SF was the local library, which usually stocked the yearly anthologies.

By: GTD Aquitaine

GTD Aquitaine — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have to wonder if part of the issue isn’t the problem of distribution. To my knowledge, in the entire city of Toronto the only place I know I can get new copies of Analog, Asimov’s, and F&SF is Bakka-Phoenix – that’s where I buy mine in lieu of subscribing. This isn’t the old days anymore when they were sold on newsstands – I can’t even remember the last time I saw a newsstand outside of a subway station.

The fans are obviously still there, but even if they can get information on the pulps and buy subscriptions online, who’s going to commit to a twelve-issue run of something they’re unfamiliar with?

By: Roger Stanton

Roger Stanton — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How could they write an article like this and not mention Escape Pod?

By: dwiff

dwiff — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There’s pretty much been “only three in existence” since the Seventies…and I bought Asimov’s issue 1 on the newstands…

By: Drew from Zhrodague

Drew from Zhrodague — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Guess I have some research and some writing to do. Then again, I wouldn’t expect to make very much money writing for the genre.

Thanks for mentioning Escape Pod, Roger. Love their theme music, but I haven’t listened to much of their podcasts yet. There are some others out there I am evaluating.

By: cyberscythe

cyberscythe — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

With that dangling modifier “there are only three left”, I thought it meant that there are only three readers who still exist. =/

By: Reverend Loki

Reverend Loki — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I myself have never been a big fan/subscriber to the SF pulps. Closest I’ve come to that is buying an old “Best Of {year}” book or two at the used book shop. I have, however, become hooked on the already mentioned Escape Pod, as well as the spinoff PseudoPod, and to a lesser extent PodCastle, and have actively sought out authors based upon readings on those podcasts.

By: evolutioneer

evolutioneer — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Folks interested in nerdy research about SF pulp literature should consider taking a peek at The Genre Evolution Project. In undergrad I was a researcher on this team, and the failing state of the pulps is something we discussed quite a lot.

Mainly we tied it back to a point highlighted in the main post – the magazines appear either content with their readership base or uncertain how to adapt to a younger generation with more entertainment options. Young people started plugging into video games and movies to get their SF entertainment fix. Authors of SF content seem to follow a similar pattern; the writers are out there of course, but how many of them are flocking to pulps as a way to make money and build a career?

It’s one manifestation of a larger pattern. Speaking as one young person, I have no newspaper or magazine subscriptions that aren’t gifted to me by aunts and uncles. (Excluding Make.)

By: Alys

Alys — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Cyberscythe, you’re not the only one. It was only when I continued reading that I realized what was intended.

By: Cochituate

Cochituate — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

My golden age of SF was when I was home sick with the mumps, just before Christmas, 1967. I sent my dad to the newsstand and had him look for a number of magazine titles I knew from anthologies. I was 15, and I found Galaxy and Analog that way. I ended up collecting magazines back into the late 1940′s, just because I’ve always been a book hound, and loved looking at how the magazines trended, back into time. I still have the Astoundings that go back that far, but now I have a 12 year daughter, and I can’t get her to pick up a novel, even if it’s something that she loved as a movie (Harry Potter comes to mind). She can’t comprehend how many books I had already read when I was her age, but then I didn’t watch as many hours of cable / TV as she has already in her life.

I picked up a couple of the magazines that are left, in the past couple of year, and I’ve looked at the stories, and read some of them as well, and I just don’t feel any connection to what has come out in the past. Are there fewer stories being submitted? Is Stanley Schmidt still editing Analog because else cares to take it away from him? I didn’t think he was that good at it 20 years ago. How sad.